


After The Storm

by Qzil



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gift Fic, LITERALLY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1924203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qzil/pseuds/Qzil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU after season nine--With Metatron defeated, Castiel plans to lock all of the angels in Heaven for good. When the Winchesters finally tell him Meg is dead, he does one thing he knows that he really shouldn’t do--he visits a parallel universe where Meg is alive so he can say goodbye to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After The Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [msdoomandgloom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/msdoomandgloom/gifts).



He wasn’t supposed to be doing this. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be doing this.

He did it anyway.

For an angel, moving through parallel universes was no harder than teleporting to the other side of the world. It took a little more energy, sure, but it wasn’t as complicated as moving humans through. They weren’t supposed to do it, of course, because it could cause interference with the angels of that universe.

But, Castiel figured, he wouldn’t have to worry about that much longer, anyway.

After they’d defeated Metatron and the souls of the departed had been able to move on to Heaven or Hell, the new prophet had awakened. And the new prophet, a small, short-tempered girl from Ontario, had read the angel tablet for him and found the correct spell to seal the angels into Heaven. His brothers and sisters had agreed that it was the best course of action to take, and were preparing for it even as he moved through the worlds.

The Winchesters would have to go on without him. They’d finally cure Crowley, he knew, and close Hell up for good, so they wouldn’t need him anymore. Without the angels and demons interfering, they would go back to being normal hunters, with the normal risks. He would see them again eventually, when some monster or other got them, but for now his time with them was done. He’d already said his goodbyes, already hugged both Sam and Dean and wished them a long life.

Now he had one more thing to do.

When he’d asked why they boys just didn’t pull Meg out of hiding and cure her instead of condemning his nurse to an eternity in Hell, they’d finally told him the truth. His suggestion had been mostly selfish, wanting to spare the demon that had cared for him the agony of Hell, and wanting to say goodbye to her, maybe have a final kiss before he went to wait for her in Heaven.

He would never get that goodbye; never get that last kiss or pizza date with _his_ Meg.

But he could see her again in a different way.

Walking away from the Winchesters, Castiel strode into the forest, shuffling between the alternate universes as easily as if they were playing cards. He only stopped when he felt her, moving toward the demonic presence that brushed against his grace.

He saw dozens of versions of the Meg he had known. He saw a universe where Lucifer had won and he had been given to her as a gift for a short time before the other angel killed her. He walked through one where he had never been sent to Purgatory with Dean and he had rescued Meg from Crowley before the crossroads demon could torture her. He walked through a universe where she believed him in Carthage and had come to their side willingly, fighting the apocalypse with them and avoiding Crowley’s wrath.

He moved through universes where she was human, and had always been human, but she had loved him anyway. There were worlds where she waited for him in a small house in the suburbs with half a dozen nephilim children playing in the yard and picking her flowers. There were worlds where they stayed together until humanity died out, walking the Earth together as it grew and changed and new species emerged.

He came across a world where he had stayed in Claire Novak’s body and Meg had stayed with him anyway, not caring that they couldn’t have a physical relationship. There, he watched her bend over and press a kiss to his vessel’s forehead before holding a wrapped McDonald’s burger just out of reach over his head.

He saw Meg in male vessels, female vessels, in the body of a child and in an old woman. He saw himself human while she was a demon, staying with him even as he aged and died. He saw it happen the other way around, the Winchesters curing her like he wished they could have in their universe. He left that world quickly, not having the heart to watch her die.

But one of the few consistent things, he noticed, was that they always found each other. No matter who won the war between Heaven and Hell, no matter what happened, they always seemed to be thrown together. The only other constant between the universes that he visited was that his relationship with Meg never ended happily. In every universe one of them died prematurely, forced to live without the other, or they were tortured by one another, or killed because of what they were. He watched his nephilim children die, or grow to hate their father. He saw Meg slaughtered by the other angels, watched himself die by another demon’s hand, or by his brother’s, or by Metatron’s.

Before he prepared to return home, Castiel stepped into one more parallel universe and searched for her. When he felt Meg’s presence as a human, he moved toward it, determined to see her one last time before he shut himself in Heaven.

Castiel made himself invisible when he reached the small house in the country that pulsed with her presence. He’d been all over the world with her when she was in hiding, able to find her wherever she went, but he’d never seen her in a place like this. The house was small and painted white, the windows on the front hidden by dark-blue shutters. A flagstone path led from the door and across the yard, ending at an iron gate that sat in the middle of a fence encasing the property. There were flowerbeds under the windows, and the lawn bloomed with soft, green grass. He could hear a dog barking from somewhere behind the house.

He froze when the garage door opened and he saw Meg, heavily pregnant, standing next to a shiny, slightly beat-up yellow car. He watched as the alternate version of himself walked into the garage behind her and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before getting in the car and backing out of the driveway.

When the car drove past him, Castiel let out a breath and stared at it in amazement.

He was human, and so was she.

More importantly, they were together and living a human life. He could clearly see that Meg was pregnant before she closed the garage door and retreated back into the house. Even when he’d seen her with the nephilim children in the other universes, and even when he’d been human and entertained the notion of the Winchesters finding and curing Meg, had he ever really thought about them having a human family together.

But, in this universe at least, it was happening.

Frozen on the gravel of the driveway, Castiel knew that he should leave, that he should return to his own universe and the other angels. Instead, he blinked and transported himself inside the house.

He spent the day watching Meg as she went about her business in the small house. Several times he had to resist the urge to help her do something or let her see him as she cooked herself lunch and settled on the couch with the plate balancing on her swollen stomach. Staying invisible, he sat beside her on the couch and watched Meg pick at her sandwich before she placed it on the table in front of her and settled in for a nap.

He watched her sleep for a moment and then got up to explore the rest of the small house. Nothing in the house looked like the Meg he knew would’ve chosen it. A hodgepodge of different styles, he guessed that they had combed through thrift stores and estate sales until they’d gotten what they needed, instead of picking their furniture based on taste. The table in the kitchen and the pea-green couches in the living room looked like they belonged in the fifties, while the spoons in the drawer still had barcodes on the back from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The chairs in the kitchen didn’t match the table, and Castiel doubted that Meg had chosen the floral-pattern curtains that covered all the windows.

He moved through the house to the bedroom that she shared with her Castiel. The IKEA furniture gleamed spotlessly, and in this room Castiel could see Meg’s touches. There was a rich, red rug under the bed to keep it from scraping against the wood floor, matching the heavy curtains and the bedspread. He spotted and empty, clean ashtray on one of the nightstands, and upon closer inspection he spotted Meg’s makeup and hair care products crowding the dresser.

Feeling like an intruder, Castiel padded into the room across the hallway and nearly tripped over his own feet in surprise.

Humans, he knew, color-coded their babies, and if the room he had just stumbled into was any indication, this version of Meg and himself were having a little girl.

Castiel gently closed the door as he walked into the room, taking in the off-white furniture and soft yellow walls. Stuffed toys crowded a small toybox in the corner of the room, small pink clothes filled the wooden dresser, and a comfy-looking armchair with an ottoman sat in the corner by the door. Diapers were already stacked neatly next to a small changing table, and a large, crocheted pink blanket was folded over a rocking chair near the crib. He wondered who had made it. No matter what universe they were in, Castiel doubted that crochet was something Meg enjoyed.

“Jody Mills.”

Castiel jumped at the familiar voice and whirled around, coming face to face with the human version of himself. Confused, he looked down at his hands to make sure he was still invisible. His human self shrugged.

“I may not be an angel anymore, but I recognize grace when I feel it. And I know myself. You may as well make yourself visible,” he said. Castiel dropped the shield with a sigh. His human self nodded politely and gestured toward the rocking chair. Cautiously, Castiel sat.

“Am I not the first?”

The other Castiel shook his head. “No. There have been two others. I sent both of them on their way. You have to leave, too. This is not your place.”

“Tell me what happened,” the angel insisted.

The human shrugged and gently lowered himself onto the ottoman. “Sam and Dean, they found a way to close the gates of Hell. Meg volunteered. I thought that would mean watching her age and die, but Metatron stole my grace. When he was defeated, he revealed that it was destroyed, and that I would have to live the rest of my life as a human.” He stared into Castiel’s eyes. “So I did. Meg was trapped as a human as well, and we decided not to pursue the hunting life. I do landscaping. She has chosen to go back to being a nurse, but for the local high school this time, instead of a hospital. The baby is due in four weeks.” Suddenly, the human’s eyes filled with pity. “The other two were here because they wanted to see her again. Did you lose her as well?”

Castiel nodded. “Where I come from, she died as a demon.”

“I’m sorry,” the other Castiel said. “But you need to leave. This isn’t where you belong, and you know what will happen if you stay here too long. You have to go back to your universe, wherever it is, and leave us alone.”

“I understand.” Rising from the rocking chair, Castiel hesitated. “You are…happy?”

“I am,” his human self answered. “Sam and Dean come by when they can. Bobby and Jody come and see us at least once a week. Lisa calls when she’s feeling lonely and Dean cannot make it home. We have friends, and we will live out our humanity together.”

“I’m glad,” Castiel said before he left the room. He touched down in the woods surrounding the property and settled in to watch the house. He knew that he should leave, and that his human self was right when he said that he didn’t belong there, but he found himself unable to move.

.

He waited until his human self left for work the next day before he slipped back inside the house. Keeping himself visible, Castiel came to the kitchen and silently stacked the plates from breakfast in the dishwasher, figuring that Meg had been too tired to take care of it. Hearing a soft snore as he neared the bedroom, Castiel slipped inside to find Meg half-asleep on the bed, the comforter pushed down to the end.

“Cas?” she said drowsily, sitting up and rubbing one eye. “What are you doing home?”

“I can be late today,” he said softly. Kicking off his shoes, he crawled into bed beside her and pulled the covers over both of them. Meg sighed and cuddled up to his side, pulling his arm around her as she did.

“Good. This stupid baby is making me all sappy. Suddenly all I want to do is sleep and cuddle.”

“Not long now,” he told her. “Soon she’ll be here.”

“We are not naming her something angelic, though,” Meg told him, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

Castiel smiled and kissed the top of her head. “You can name her whatever you want.”

Meg grunted and relaxed against him. Castiel stayed motionless next to her until her breathing evened out and she fell into a deep sleep. Only when he was sure she would not wake did he press his face against her and inhale while he held her as tight as he could without hurting or waking her.

She didn’t smell like the Meg he had known. Instead of sulfur and Hellfire, her scent was softer, almost cleaner. She smelled like milk and fabric softener and French toast. Still, he inhaled deeply.

Castiel held her for a moment longer before he gently extracted himself from Meg’s embrace and bent to put his shoes on. A small voice in the back of his head told him to stay here, to watch over this Meg and his human counterpart and sneak an hour with her and her child whenever he could. But a stronger voice told him that his human self was right, that he had to go back to his own universe and face his responsibilities.

In the end, that was the voice that won out.

Fixing his shoes in place, Castiel stood and bent over Meg, tucking the blanket in tighter around her. As gently as he could, Castiel moved his hand over her swollen stomach, jumping slightly when the baby kicked. Meg grunted in her sleep.

He hesitated for a moment and then quickly bent to brush his lips against hers. The taste of sulfur was gone from her, but she still felt like the Meg he had known.

He took one last look at her before he stepped back into his universe where he belonged and prepared to shut the angels in Heaven.

 

 

 


End file.
